223 Brass

**dfrosch** · 03-27-2010, 08:19 AM

Bought some Winchester 223 brass at Midway a couple weeks ago 'cause it was on sale. Gotta be the worst brass ever seen. None of the necks were round. Over all lengths varied by about .09(yes, one was .080 over max). Quite a few of the mouths were damage and a couple had neck wall thickness variances of .005 -.006. Probably won't bother reloading this brass too many times.

Looking around for replacement brass and see that Bruno has bulk Lapua 223 brass for $.44 each and several etailers sell boxes of 100 for around $55 per 100. Is the bulk brass as good as the box?

Anyone tried the bulk LC 2009 brass from Grafs? Heard good things about Lake City brass, but that was before Federal took over their operations.
http://www.grafs.com/product/258628

I'm open to other suggestions too...

Thanks in advance,

Dana

dcloco · 03-27-2010, 09:15 AM

I would use the LC brass in a heartbeat. Good price too.

Not sure on the "bulk" Lapua. Can they guarantee the same lot? If so, no problem. When paying the premium for Lapua brass, I expect it to be perfect...first step would be the same lot number.

**Slowpoke Slim** · 03-27-2010, 09:37 AM

I recently bought some Lapua 223 brass from Bruno's to fireform into 6 TCU brass. It is fantastic stuff. Very, very consistent. I bought a box of 100. I think if you want different quantities than x100, they break it out of a 100 ct box. I've seen boxes on his shelves marked with quantities less than 100 in them. They usually have a very good price on their Lapua brass, that's also where I buy my 6.5x284 brass.

I'm spoiled I guess, it's about a 10 minute drive to their shop from my house...

;D

steveinwv · 03-27-2010, 11:33 AM

For my favorite guns I buy Lapua. I have loaded 10pcs. 26 times. The other 90pcs have about 10 on them. I am trying to see how many time I can load them before I get the first split neck or case head separation. Hasn't happened yet. They have been annealled by me 3 times in that period. At 100 rounds for $50+, it is still a good buy. I get about 15 loads out of winchester and less with remington brass. All .223 brass. I make my .260 brass out of Lapua .308. I'll probably buy 2 barrels before I wear out the brass. I don't know why it is better, it just is. Primers stay tight with hot loads (not stupid hot). Norma brass is good too. Hornady Frontier is excellent if you can by it for your caliber.

Hylander · 03-28-2010, 01:38 AM

Never had a problem with Win Brass
I use it for everything
I do like FC and LC better though

**dfrosch** · 03-28-2010, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by Hylander

Never had a problem with Win Brass...

Have heard whispers in the last year or so that the quality has gone down. Only speculating that during the reloading component shortage, the rush to ship product caused some quality checks to be bypassed.

Went ahead and ordered the Lake City from Grafs. They ship for free, but charge a $4.50 handling and insurance fee.

borg · 03-29-2010, 11:27 AM

I reload .308 and the Win brass I recently purchased was decent but not great. One severely off-center primer hole, all of the mouths were dented but sized up just fine. The majority of them were 2.0065", with the shortest being 2.0045" and the longest 2.0140", before FL sizing.

But I guess I don't really know what good brass is like.